Skydeck Vanguard

Chapter 20: Internal Bleeding

Ciel marches over to me, despite Skye yelling for him to keep his distance from me. I stand there, frozen, as he walks over. I find myself having to tilt my head back as I look up at him, since he's now probably at least six feet tall and definitely looks much older than before. As he approaches, I notice that he has a scar running down across one of his cerulean eyes and he seems much less lighthearted than he once was...which...I don't blame him. But, overall, I'm still in shock that he's alive and standing in front of me. Ciel goes to place a hand on my shoulder and Valerian glares at him, smacking his hand away as he steps in front of me.

"Oi," Valerian snaps, his red eyes fuming, "don't touch her."

The two boys share a glaring contest, each of them trying to exert their dominance over the other. Valerian crosses his arms angrily whenever he notices that he's slightly shorter than Ciel, perhaps by an inch or two, but they're both several inches taller than me.

"She's my sister," Ciel snaps in return.

"So?" Valerian snorts, "Who says we can even trust you? We don't know where you've been. Hell, Celes thought you might've been dead. The only hope she had was that they never found you to confirm it. Do you know how much grief you caused her? I ought to knock your lights out for not coming back sooner."

"We? Who's we? I don't need your damn approval," Ciel retorts, his eyes flickering back to me before his expression softens and he attempts to take a step towards me, "Celes, please say something. Anything."

"I don't understand..." I breathe out as I stare up at him, Ciel's eyes turning sad and Valerian's angry expression turning to one of empathy, "how..."

My mind swims as I think back to Rem and Ashton and what happened with them, possibly wondering if Ciel died and is being controlled by Elise. All I was told was that Ciel's body was nowhere to be found, never confirmed dead. And was Ciel the one who sent me the letter last night? The letter didn't seem like whoever sent it had good intentions and something about it and his arrival just doesn't make any sense to me. Then again, none of it makes sense to me.

"Look, I'm sorry," Ciel starts, his voice rough with emotion as confliction swims in his eyes, "I'm really sorry that I didn't come back sooner, but I couldn't. Celes, I couldn't--"

"Did you send me a letter?" I breathe out, cutting him off as my eyes openly search his, "Just yesterday, did you send me a letter?"

"A letter?" Ciel frowns, confused, "Celes, I never sent you a letter. It would've been too dangerous. Celes, I really need to talk to you. It's important. Elise isn't--"

"Elise isn't what she seems to be, we know," I sigh and he grows silent for a few moments, "Is that all you came here for? What even happened to you? Where did you go?"

"Elise isn't the only one who wasn't what she seemed to be," Ciel starts, running a hand through his hair as pain flashes through his eyes, "Our father was involved with Elise's plans. He was one of her loyal soldiers. Whenever Uncle Christoph found out, he lured him into the woods and attacked him, catching him off guard and killing him. He wanted to protect us. He really loved his brother, but he didn't want to see us get hurt. So, he made his death glorified in our eyes so that we'd have a good memory of him."

"What does this have to do with anything?" I frown, not liking where this is going.

"The Vanguard that Mom locked away was working for Elise," Ciel explains frantically, "and Elise wanted vengeance on our family for daring to oppose her. That's how the Vanguard broke out. Elise helped them and led them to our house. After you ran away and everything was finished, Elise came in and dragged me away whenever I saw Christoph get shot. I was barely conscious at the time and I passed out on the way to wherever she took me. Celes, I really wanted to come, I did, but I had to convince Elise that I would help her and follow her. I finally managed to find an opening to escape and I gathered so much information. Celes, I can help you. Please...I'm so sorry."